Sofitel Athens Airport Restaurant Menu

[Gaetan Horton]

TheSofitel Athens International Airport is 50 metres from the airport terminal. Rafina, the port for popular islands like Mykonos, is a 20-minute cab ride. Central Athens is 45 minutes by metro. Location is the Sofitel's big selling point, but there's more to this hotel than convenience. The heated indoor pool is great for getting rid of post-flight stiffness. The penthouse Karavi restaurant offers posh dining and a French-influenced menu, the Mesoghaia buffet-brasseries serves 24 hours a day, and on warm evenings the open Artemis terrace is a pleasant place to kill time. Those who prefer to dine away from the hotel will find lots of good seafood restaurants by the harbour at Rafina. Bedrooms offer all the trimmings you'd expect from this luxury hotel brand, including ultra-comfy beds specially designed for Sofitel, 24-hour room service, and triple-glazed windows that do an efficient job of cutting out airport noise.

This 12-day Greece itinerary is a summary of our trip listing hotels where we stayed, restaurants where we ate, and some highlights of things to do. There will be more information and photos in future posts.

We relied on walking and taxis for our stays in Athens and on Santorini. On Crete, we rented a car, but ended up using it only for our transportation from Heraklion Airport to our resort an hour away in Plaka near Elounda.

We flew Aegean Airlines from Athens to Santorini and Heraklion, Crete to Athens (each flight was less than an hour), and took a high-speed SeaJets Power Jet ferry from Santorini to Crete (under two hours).

We love visiting international cities and found Athens to have its own urban capital city character. Of course, there is also much of ancient Greece on display in archaeological and historical landmarks like the Acropolis. We found everything we wanted to do within walking distance in the city center and nearby neighborhoods.

Santorini is famous for its picturesque towns above the volcano caldera and its romantic sunsets. It is certainly worth a visit for its beauty and we felt that three days was a good amount of time to spend. Santorini is a very busy island, especially in the town of Fira and Oia as it is very popular with cruise ship passengers. Although there are restrictions on the number of passengers who can visit per day, the towns get quite crowded when the ships are in.

Almost everything I read about Crete said that this island, the largest of the Greek islands, should be visited for much longer than we would have time for. Acknowledging that there would be no way we could even scratch the surface of Crete, we decided to put it on our itinerary to get a glimpse and also spend some time on the quieter side of the island for a contrasting experience from the urban center of Athens and the busy island of Santorini. It worked out perfectly.

These restaurants in Plaka are located along the waterfront on the main pedestrian street. The first three restaurants listed are right next to each other and had similar menus focusing extensively on fresh seafood. At each, we sat at excellent outside tables and relished the breezes and romantic ambiance.

If you rent a car/return a car at Heraklion Airport, be prepared for the dozens of rental car agency pickup/drop-off locations crammed closely together outside of the terminal. When we picked up our car at the ferry port, there was a Rental Center Crete (Just Rentals) representative waiting for us with our car which was very convenient. Returning the car to the airport was a little more complicated as we looked for our drop-off point along the narrow, busy road. Just give yourself plenty of time. The terminal is just a few minutes walk from the car return.

Dining reservations tip: If visiting during high season (June to August) make reservations for the best seating in the best places. On this trip, we did not use any booking apps on our phones, but relied on our hotel concierge for recommendations and reservations.

Last day tip: We flew from Heraklion, Crete to Athens in the early evening of the day before our flight home. We spent the night at the Sofitel Athens Airport, just a short walk from the terminal to the hotel lobby. It was a perfect way to end the trip without rushing around, worrying about connecting flights, etc. Instead, we had a leisurely dinner in the restaurant at the hotel and were refreshed for heading back home the next day.

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